


Movies

by 8ad_Wolf



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Other, ask me for more, bc i will write it, jade and john work there, movie theater thing, rose and dave review movies for their school paper, them and humans just kind of coexist, trolls are all still trolls in this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 13:17:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7269808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8ad_Wolf/pseuds/8ad_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You're not as upset about working here as you pretend to be. Sure, you could use higher pay and maybe less hours, but it's not terrible! It's especially not bad when Jade is working the same shifts as you, like she has been lately. You've had way too many weird late-night conversations not to be close.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Movies

**Author's Note:**

> Jade and John work at a movie theater! Yeah this is fun

“I dare you to eat the next three pieces of popcorn I drop.”

“Jade, this floor is disgusting. I’m not going to do that.”

“Because you’re dumb. Hi, what can I get you?”

“I’m not dumb,” you mutter. You overhear Jade’s customer ask for an Icee, so you start to fill up a cup.  You hand it to Jade, who hands it to her customer. Once the woman is gone, your coworker sighs and leans on the candy case.

“How late are you working tonight?” she asks.

“Shrug.”

“John, you’re the only person in like, ever, to just say ‘sigh’ instead of sighing.” Jade tucks a stray piece of hair back into her headband. Her glasses reflect the menu lighting, purple and blue and red. She doesn’t look upset, but she doesnt have the huge smile she has when she’s talking with customers.

“Whatever, Jade. I think I’m going home at like twelve.”

“Aw. I’m only working until ten.” Jade frowns and tilts her head to the side. “I was hoping we could go to IHop or something after work.”

“I’m going straight home, thanks,” you say.

“Maybe I’ll stay and see a movie.”

“You work here almost seven days a week, don’t you get enough of this dump?”

You’re not as upset about working here as you pretend to be. Sure, you could use higher pay and maybe less hours, but it’s not terrible! It’s especially not bad when Jade is working the same shifts as you, like she has been lately. You’ve had way too many weird late-night conversations not to be close.

Jade shrugs. “It’s not terrible as long as I clock out. Do you think I could get away with pretending to work overtime while I saw a movie?”

You snort, “Roxy wouldn’t care.”

Roxy’s your boss/mentor, and she’s pretty (very) chill when it comes to that sort of stuff. It’s more like a suggestion when she says you need to clock out for lunch and dinner. She probably would pretend not to notice is Jade didn’t go off the clock to see some chick-flick. Well, knowing her, probably actually an action movie. That’s another reason you like Jade.

“I might,” Jade continues, “but I’m suuuper tired. My brother and I went to one of the college baseball games last night.”

“Wow. How long were you there?”

“Midnight, maybe. You take this customer, I’m pooped.” Jade wanders off to one of the other counters and pretends to be scrubbing at a spot.

A blonde boy and curly-haired girl, both about your and Jade’s age, walk up to the counter. The boy’s wearing sunglasses (??) and the girl has dark purple lips and sharp makeup. “Large popcorn please, that’s the bucket one, right?” the boy says.

“Sure is. Do you want butter?” You type their order into the register.

“Extra.”

“Cool. Any drinks or candy?”

“I think that’ll be it.”

You hit enter on the keypad and tell them, “Ten fifty-seven is your total.”

“Rose, pay the man,” he announces.

Rose turns the boy around and pulls a wallet out of a backpack you hadn’t noticed before. She hands you a twenty. “Keep the change,” she says.

“Guh. Thanks.” You’ve gotten maybe three tips in your entire six months working at the Apollo Cinema. You see Jade’s surprised look from the corner of your eye, and you put the twenty in the register. “I’ll get your popcorn right out.”

“Thank you.” Rose leans down and studies the candy, and you mostly ignore the boy staring at the back of your head.

“Dave, don’t be rude,” you hear Rose say, followed by a slapping noise and a soft “ow.”

Jade giggles.

You feel your face turn red.

“I was admiring his haircut,” Dave says. “Who cut your hair?”

“My dad, actually,” you tell him. “And it’ll be a minute, we have to make a little more popcorn. It’s empty, and I don’t think you want cold and stale popcorn.”

“It shouldn’t take long,” Jade adds in. “Only like, thirty seconds.”

“I just said that.”

“So? I just said it again,”

You open your mouth to say something probably meaner than necessary, but Rose says, “It’s alright. We can wait.”

Jade smiles at you. You stick your tongue out at her.

After a few minutes of polite silence, you give them the warm popcorn. “Enjoy the movie,” you say.

“You too, fuck, no you won’t,” Dave says.

You laugh. Rose gives you a thumbs up, and the pair disappears into the 5 through 9 hall. Jade’s helping another customer, hopefully the last one for a while. One of you needs to clean theater seven, and you would rather get it over with.

The man and his three bouncing kids head for the halls. Jade holds up a fist,and you play a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors. She beats your rock with paper, and you toss your head back and sigh deeply. She giggles quietly.

“Fuck you,” you say quietly, slipping past her to the cleaning closet. You hate this part of your job.

* * *

You follow a crowd coming out of the newest movie about talking cats or whatever is playing, and toss the broom and dustpan into the closet.

“Hi,” Jade says cheerily when she sees you. “How was it?”

“No barf this time. Just lots of popcorn and a few soda spills.”

“Darn.”

“No darn, I hate cleaning up barf!”

“Oh well. Come help, there’s a huge crowd coming in, can you see them?” You climb over the counter and follow Jade’s pointing finger to the door. A large group of people (lots of kids, probably a birthday party) gather around the ticket booth.

“Ugh. Here we go.”

The crowd is in and out of the concessions in about ten minutes, a record time for a group of their size. You lean on the back counter and look around the lobby. The arcade in the corner flashes, the movietunes play softly in the background, and Dave, the short, blonde, hoodie-wearer from earlier is canoodled up to Cardboard Iron Man with his phone in his outstretched hand. You watch him take a selfie, and feel your stomach flip with excitement when he comes over with a popcorn bucket in his other hand.

“The lady requests more popcorn,” he says, plopping the container onto the counter.

“And she made you refill it?” You smile at him. “Classy.”

“Yeah. Where’s the other girl you work with? The one with the furry headband?”

You roll your eyes. “She wears that every day,” you sigh. “The kids and the parents always like it, but it’s so tacky.”

“I thought it was pretty cool.”

“She has a matching tail.”

“That’s going too far.”

You laugh and scoop more popcorn in the bucket. “She went to go clean up the arcade. Some kid dumped a huge soda on the floor next to the Skee-Ball thing.”

“Gross.” He watches you top off the bucket with a little extra butter. “How much was that? Three dollars?”

“It’s on the house,” you say, handing it to him.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. My boss won’t care.”

“I’m not turning down free popcorn, but I’m only going to take it if you’re sure no one will notice.”

“You guys gave me a tip, I’ll use that if it’s really that concerning.”

Dave shrugs after a second and says, “Oh-kay, if you say so. Thanks.”

“Yep! Enjoy the rest of your movie!” He starts to say ‘you too,’ but snaps his mouth shut and points at you. You laugh.

“Were you two flirting?” Jade says from across the lobby. You glance around and flip her off once you’re sure no one’s around to see. She cackles.

“No, we weren’t, I was refilling his popcorn bucket.”

“Jeeez, okay, don’t sound so offended. He _was_ pretty cute.”

“Did you finish cleaning in there?”

“Yes, Johnathan, I am finished cleaning in there.”

“Good for you. It’s almost ten.”

Jade whoops and hurries to put her stuff away.

“Karkat’s working tonight,” Jade tells you on her way out. “He’ll be a little late though, something with him needing a ride from his brother.”

“Ugh. Great. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You hug Jade, and you watch the second hand tick closer and closer to the twelve for forever.

At almost eleven, Rose and Dave come out of the theater chattering seriously. They’re looking at a notepad, and as they walk past Dave drops a folded up paper onto the counter. Rose barely looks up, but she says “thank you” just as they leave the lobby.

You stare at the paper. It’s torn badly from a legal pad, and there’s red sharpie soaking through it. You unfold it and read,

hey its dave  
call me/pester me  
do you even have pesterchum idk but im turntechGodhead  
my #s 438-5434  
see you? maybe

**Author's Note:**

> moderatelychaotic.tumblr.com


End file.
